9:25 PM,
Feb. 1, 2013

Workers on the military truck assembly line at Oshkosh Corp.

Written by

Tim Mullaney
USA TODAY

The Lockheed Martin executive was two years out of her internship when then-Defense secretary Dick Cheney killed the A-12 bomber. On Jan. 7, 1991, a unit of General Dynamics (the division is now part of Lockheed) responded by firing 4,000 workers here, in a one-day swoop as devastating as a bomber run.

"I'll never forget," says Lauderdale, now general manager of aeronautical operations at Lockheed's 14,200-worker location here, including the factory making F-35 fighter planes. "They brought in crates of boxes, ...